Healing Sands Read Online Free PDF Page A

back to her feet. “We ask that the defendant be released to the custody of his parents, Your Honor. He has no priors. He is not a flight risk. He doesn’t even have a driver’s license.”
    â€œHe doesn’t seem to need one.” Ms. Hernandez didn’t look at Jake this time. She turned her eyes on me, lip curled as if she could smell how much I reeked as a mother.
    I wanted to spit at her.
    â€œI’ll leave custody as it is,” the judge said. “Young man, you are to adhere to the restrictions that apply, or you will find yourself behind bars.”
    With a bang of the gavel, we were done. Papers were shuffled and new names were called, and Uriel Cohen was herding the three of us up the aisle and out into the hall where she nodded us to a long bench none of us sat on.
    â€œWhat was that ? ” I said.
    â€œJust a hearing.” She turned to Jake, who held his hands together in front of him as if he were still in handcuffs. “Don’t let that scare you.”
    â€œHow can that not scare him? They wanted to put him in jail!”
    â€œWe all heard it, Ryan.” Dan shifted his gaze up and down the hall and once again hung his hand on the back of Jake’s neck.
    I lowered my voice. “That just wasn’t fair. You didn’t have any time to prepare—”
    â€œIt wouldn’t have made any difference. I knew going in they had enough. If he’d been a year younger, it might have gone differently. Over fourteen they consider them to have the ‘guilty mind’ required to be accountable.” Uriel pulled her mouth into a straight-line smile. “We didn’t want to show our hand. We’ll save it for—”
    â€œSave what?” I said.
    â€œLook, I’m going to take Jake home.” Dan put out his hand to Uriel. “Nice meeting you.”
    â€œDan, we need to talk about this!”
    â€œNo, actually, why don’t you let me get my ducks in a row, and then we’ll all sit down together and sort it out, hmm?” Uriel let go of Dan’s hand and gave Jake a quick nod. “You guys go on, and I’ll call you.”
    I dropped my forehead into my hand and listened to Dan and Jake’s retreating footsteps across the tile to the front door. They all but broke into a run.
    â€œI know that all sounded grim for Jacob.”
    I looked up at Uriel Cohen. “Jake. We call him Jake.”
    â€œJake. Nina Hernandez made it sound like we might as well cart him off to Springer right now, but I feel positive that I can get straight probation for him.”
    â€œProbation,” I said.
    â€œHe has no priors,” she said. “Never been in trouble with the law before?”
    â€œNo!”
    â€œIs he a decent student?”
    â€œHe has to work at it, but he does fine. Unless his grades have slipped in the last year.”
    She looked at me.
    â€œHe hasn’t been living with me,” I said. “I was out of the country until six weeks ago.”
    â€œI should have no problem getting him two, three years’ probation max. All that stuff about premeditation and racial features was just to make us think—”
    â€œAre you saying Jake’s going to be convicted?”
    She tucked a lanky strand of white hair behind each ear. “I need to go in with a defense that plays up the impetuousness of youth—”
    â€œYou don’t understand,” I said. “There is no way Jake did this. I’ve watched him carry a black widow spider outside on a sheet of paper because he can’t stand to kill anything.”
    â€œWe can definitely use that.”
    â€œI don’t care what the evidence is, things are not what they look like here.” I shook my head hard. “I don’t want probation for Jake. I want him acquitted.”
    Uriel’s eyes took on a glint. “I see you’re a woman who’s used to getting what she wants.”
    â€œI’m